The ancient Egyptian units of measurement are those used by the
dynasties of
ancient Egypt prior to its incorporation in the
Roman Empire and general adoption of
Roman,
Greek, and
Byzantine units of measurement. The units of length seem to have originally been
anthropic, based on various parts of the
human body, although these were standardized using cubit rods, strands of rope, and official measures maintained at some temples.
Egyptian units of length are attested from the
Early Dynastic Period. Although it dates to the 5th dynasty, the
Palermo stone recorded the level of the
Nile River during the reign of the Early Dynastic
pharaohDjer, when the height of the Nile was recorded as 6 cubits and 1 palm[1] (about 3.217 m or 10 ft 6.7 in). A
Third Dynasty diagram shows how to construct an elliptical vault using simple measures along an arc. The
ostracon depicting this diagram was found near the
Step Pyramid of
Saqqara. A curve is divided into five sections and the height of the curve is given in cubits, palms, and digits in each of the sections.[2][3]
At some point, lengths were standardized by
cubit rods. Examples have been found in the tombs of officials, noting lengths up to remen. Royal cubits were used for land measures such as roads and fields. Fourteen rods, including one double-cubit rod, were described and compared by
Lepsius.[4] Two examples are known from the
Saqqara tomb of
Maya, the treasurer of
Tutankhamun. Another was found in the tomb of Kha (
TT8) in
Thebes. These cubits are about 52.5 cm (20.7 in) long and are divided into palms and hands: each palm is divided into four fingers from left to right and the fingers are further subdivided into ro from right to left. The rules are also divided into hands[5] so that for example one foot is given as three hands and fifteen fingers and also as four palms and sixteen fingers.[6][3][7][8][9][5]
Surveying and itinerant measurement were undertaken using rods, poles, and knotted cords of rope. A scene in the tomb of
Menna in
Thebes shows surveyors measuring a plot of land using rope with knots tied at regular intervals. Similar scenes can be found in the tombs of Amenhotep-Sesi, Khaemhat and Djeserkareseneb. The balls of rope are also shown in
New Kingdom statues of officials such as
Senenmut, Amenemhet-Surer, and Penanhor.[2]
The digit was also subdivided into smaller fractions of 1⁄2, 1⁄3, 1⁄4, and 1⁄16.[33] Minor units include the
Middle Kingdom reed of 2 royal cubits,[j] the
Ptolemaic xylon (
Greek: ξύλον,
lit."timber") of three royal cubits,[34][35] the Ptolemaic
fathom (
Greek: ὀργυιά, orgyiá;
Ancient Egyptian: ḥpt;
Coptic: ϩⲡⲟⲧ, hpot) of four lesser cubits,[36] and the kalamos of six royal cubits.[17]
Area
Records of land area also date to the
Early Dynastic Period. The
Palermo stone records grants of land expressed in terms of kha and setat. Mathematical papyri also include units of land area in their problems. For example, several problems in the
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus give the area of rectangular plots of land in terms of setat and the ratio of the sides and then require the scribe to solve for their exact lengths.[6]
The setat was the basic unit of land measure and may originally have varied in size across Egypt's
nomes.[20] Later, it was equal to one square khet, where a khet measured 100 cubits. The setat could be divided into strips one khet long and ten cubit wide (a kha).[2][6][37]
During the Ptolemaic period, the cubit strip square was surveyed using a length of 96 cubits rather than 100, although the aroura was still figured to compose 2,756.25m2.[17] A 36squarecubit area was known as a kalamos and a 144squarecubit area as a hamma.[17] The uncommon bikos may have been 1+1⁄2hammata or another name for the cubit strip.[17] The Coptic shipa (ϣⲓⲡⲁ) was a land unit of uncertain value, possibly derived from
Nubia.[43]
Volume
Units of volume appear in the mathematical papyri. For example, computing the volume of a circular
granary in
RMP42 involves cubic cubits, khar, heqats, and quadruple heqats.[6][9] RMP80 divides heqats of grain into smaller henu.
The oipe was also formerly romanized as the apet.[48]
Weight
Weights were measured in terms of
deben. This unit would have been equivalent to 13.6 grams in the
Old Kingdom and
Middle Kingdom. During the
New Kingdom however it was equivalent to 91 grams. For smaller amounts the qedet (1⁄10 of a deben) and the shematy (1⁄12 of a deben) were used.[2][9]
The qedet or kedet is also often known as the kite, from the
Coptic form of the same name (ⲕⲓⲧⲉ or ⲕⲓϯ).[49] In 19th-century sources, the deben and qedet are often mistakenly transliterated as the uten and kat respectively, although this was corrected by the 20th century.[50]
The
Egyptian civil calendar in place by
Dynasty V[54] followed
regnal eras resetting with the ascension of each new
pharaoh.[55] It was based on the
solar year and apparently initiated during a
heliacal rising of
Sirius following a recognition of its rough correlation with the onset of the Nile flood.[56] It followed none of these consistently, however. Its year was divided into 3 seasons,
12 months, 36
decans, or 360
days with another 5
epagomenal days[57]—celebrated as the birthdays of five major gods[58] but feared for their ill luck[59]—added "upon the year". The
Egyptian months were originally simply numbered within each season[60] but, in later sources, they acquired names from the year's major festivals[61] and the three decans of each one were distinguished as "first", "middle", and "last".[62] It has been suggested that during the
Nineteenth Dynasty and the
Twentieth Dynasty the last two days of each decan were usually treated as a kind of weekend for the royal craftsmen, with royal artisans free from work.[63] This scheme lacked any provision for
leap yearintercalation until the introduction of the
Alexandrian calendar by
Augustus in the 20sBC, causing it to slowly move through the
Sothic cycle against the
solar,
Sothic, and
Julian years.[6][3][64] Dates were typically given in a
YMD format.[55]
The civil calendar was apparently preceded by an observational
lunar calendar which was eventually made
lunisolar[q] and fixed to the civil calendar, probably in 357BC.[67] The months of these calendars were known as "temple months"[68] and used for liturgical purposes until the
closing of Egypt's pagan temples under
Theodosius I[69] in the AD390s and the subsequent suppression of individual worship by
his successors.[70]
Smaller units of time were vague approximations for most of Egyptian history. Hours—known by a variant of the word for "stars"[71]—were initially only demarcated at night and varied in length. They were measured using
decan stars and by
water clocks. Equal 24-part divisions of the day were only introduced in 127BC. Division of these hours into 60 equal
minutes is attested in
Ptolemy's 2nd-century works.
^Parker extensively developed the thesis that the predynastic lunar calendar was already
lunisolar, using
intercalary months every 2 or 3 years to maintain
Sirius's
return to the night sky in its twelfth month,[65] but no evidence of such intercalation exists predating the schematic lunisolar calendar developed in 4th century BC.[66]
^Abd el-Mohsen Bakir (1978), Hat-'a em Sbayet r-en Kemet: An Introduction to the Study of the Egyptian Language: A Semitic Approach, General Egyptian Book Organization, p. 70.
^
abKatz, Victor J.; et al., eds. (2007), The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook, Princeton University Press, p. 17,
ISBN978-0-691-11485-9.
^"Weights and Measures", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. XXIV, 1888.
The ancient Egyptian units of measurement are those used by the
dynasties of
ancient Egypt prior to its incorporation in the
Roman Empire and general adoption of
Roman,
Greek, and
Byzantine units of measurement. The units of length seem to have originally been
anthropic, based on various parts of the
human body, although these were standardized using cubit rods, strands of rope, and official measures maintained at some temples.
Egyptian units of length are attested from the
Early Dynastic Period. Although it dates to the 5th dynasty, the
Palermo stone recorded the level of the
Nile River during the reign of the Early Dynastic
pharaohDjer, when the height of the Nile was recorded as 6 cubits and 1 palm[1] (about 3.217 m or 10 ft 6.7 in). A
Third Dynasty diagram shows how to construct an elliptical vault using simple measures along an arc. The
ostracon depicting this diagram was found near the
Step Pyramid of
Saqqara. A curve is divided into five sections and the height of the curve is given in cubits, palms, and digits in each of the sections.[2][3]
At some point, lengths were standardized by
cubit rods. Examples have been found in the tombs of officials, noting lengths up to remen. Royal cubits were used for land measures such as roads and fields. Fourteen rods, including one double-cubit rod, were described and compared by
Lepsius.[4] Two examples are known from the
Saqqara tomb of
Maya, the treasurer of
Tutankhamun. Another was found in the tomb of Kha (
TT8) in
Thebes. These cubits are about 52.5 cm (20.7 in) long and are divided into palms and hands: each palm is divided into four fingers from left to right and the fingers are further subdivided into ro from right to left. The rules are also divided into hands[5] so that for example one foot is given as three hands and fifteen fingers and also as four palms and sixteen fingers.[6][3][7][8][9][5]
Surveying and itinerant measurement were undertaken using rods, poles, and knotted cords of rope. A scene in the tomb of
Menna in
Thebes shows surveyors measuring a plot of land using rope with knots tied at regular intervals. Similar scenes can be found in the tombs of Amenhotep-Sesi, Khaemhat and Djeserkareseneb. The balls of rope are also shown in
New Kingdom statues of officials such as
Senenmut, Amenemhet-Surer, and Penanhor.[2]
The digit was also subdivided into smaller fractions of 1⁄2, 1⁄3, 1⁄4, and 1⁄16.[33] Minor units include the
Middle Kingdom reed of 2 royal cubits,[j] the
Ptolemaic xylon (
Greek: ξύλον,
lit."timber") of three royal cubits,[34][35] the Ptolemaic
fathom (
Greek: ὀργυιά, orgyiá;
Ancient Egyptian: ḥpt;
Coptic: ϩⲡⲟⲧ, hpot) of four lesser cubits,[36] and the kalamos of six royal cubits.[17]
Area
Records of land area also date to the
Early Dynastic Period. The
Palermo stone records grants of land expressed in terms of kha and setat. Mathematical papyri also include units of land area in their problems. For example, several problems in the
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus give the area of rectangular plots of land in terms of setat and the ratio of the sides and then require the scribe to solve for their exact lengths.[6]
The setat was the basic unit of land measure and may originally have varied in size across Egypt's
nomes.[20] Later, it was equal to one square khet, where a khet measured 100 cubits. The setat could be divided into strips one khet long and ten cubit wide (a kha).[2][6][37]
During the Ptolemaic period, the cubit strip square was surveyed using a length of 96 cubits rather than 100, although the aroura was still figured to compose 2,756.25m2.[17] A 36squarecubit area was known as a kalamos and a 144squarecubit area as a hamma.[17] The uncommon bikos may have been 1+1⁄2hammata or another name for the cubit strip.[17] The Coptic shipa (ϣⲓⲡⲁ) was a land unit of uncertain value, possibly derived from
Nubia.[43]
Volume
Units of volume appear in the mathematical papyri. For example, computing the volume of a circular
granary in
RMP42 involves cubic cubits, khar, heqats, and quadruple heqats.[6][9] RMP80 divides heqats of grain into smaller henu.
The oipe was also formerly romanized as the apet.[48]
Weight
Weights were measured in terms of
deben. This unit would have been equivalent to 13.6 grams in the
Old Kingdom and
Middle Kingdom. During the
New Kingdom however it was equivalent to 91 grams. For smaller amounts the qedet (1⁄10 of a deben) and the shematy (1⁄12 of a deben) were used.[2][9]
The qedet or kedet is also often known as the kite, from the
Coptic form of the same name (ⲕⲓⲧⲉ or ⲕⲓϯ).[49] In 19th-century sources, the deben and qedet are often mistakenly transliterated as the uten and kat respectively, although this was corrected by the 20th century.[50]
The
Egyptian civil calendar in place by
Dynasty V[54] followed
regnal eras resetting with the ascension of each new
pharaoh.[55] It was based on the
solar year and apparently initiated during a
heliacal rising of
Sirius following a recognition of its rough correlation with the onset of the Nile flood.[56] It followed none of these consistently, however. Its year was divided into 3 seasons,
12 months, 36
decans, or 360
days with another 5
epagomenal days[57]—celebrated as the birthdays of five major gods[58] but feared for their ill luck[59]—added "upon the year". The
Egyptian months were originally simply numbered within each season[60] but, in later sources, they acquired names from the year's major festivals[61] and the three decans of each one were distinguished as "first", "middle", and "last".[62] It has been suggested that during the
Nineteenth Dynasty and the
Twentieth Dynasty the last two days of each decan were usually treated as a kind of weekend for the royal craftsmen, with royal artisans free from work.[63] This scheme lacked any provision for
leap yearintercalation until the introduction of the
Alexandrian calendar by
Augustus in the 20sBC, causing it to slowly move through the
Sothic cycle against the
solar,
Sothic, and
Julian years.[6][3][64] Dates were typically given in a
YMD format.[55]
The civil calendar was apparently preceded by an observational
lunar calendar which was eventually made
lunisolar[q] and fixed to the civil calendar, probably in 357BC.[67] The months of these calendars were known as "temple months"[68] and used for liturgical purposes until the
closing of Egypt's pagan temples under
Theodosius I[69] in the AD390s and the subsequent suppression of individual worship by
his successors.[70]
Smaller units of time were vague approximations for most of Egyptian history. Hours—known by a variant of the word for "stars"[71]—were initially only demarcated at night and varied in length. They were measured using
decan stars and by
water clocks. Equal 24-part divisions of the day were only introduced in 127BC. Division of these hours into 60 equal
minutes is attested in
Ptolemy's 2nd-century works.
^Parker extensively developed the thesis that the predynastic lunar calendar was already
lunisolar, using
intercalary months every 2 or 3 years to maintain
Sirius's
return to the night sky in its twelfth month,[65] but no evidence of such intercalation exists predating the schematic lunisolar calendar developed in 4th century BC.[66]
^Abd el-Mohsen Bakir (1978), Hat-'a em Sbayet r-en Kemet: An Introduction to the Study of the Egyptian Language: A Semitic Approach, General Egyptian Book Organization, p. 70.
^
abKatz, Victor J.; et al., eds. (2007), The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook, Princeton University Press, p. 17,
ISBN978-0-691-11485-9.
^"Weights and Measures", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. XXIV, 1888.